Author: Richard Peck
TItle: A Year Down Yonder
Illustrator: Richard Peck
Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers
Year: 2000
Genre: Newbery
Format: Hardcover
Reading level: Advanced
Interest Level: Late elementary, middle school, high school
Topics: adjusting to new life, family, relationships
Summary: This book is about a 15 year old girl named Mary Alice who lives in Chicago with her mom and dad. Mary Alice is forced to go live with her grandma in a hickville farming community. Mary Alice is not excited whatsoever to go. Her cat Bootsie comes along. Mary Alice encounters many different problems while living with her grandmother. At the end of the story though, she is not so sure she wants to go back to Chicago. She learns that the hickville farming community is not so bad to live in, and is actually fun.
Extension Activity: Have students write about their own experiences with moving or some kind of change/transition they have had to face and what they learned -good/bad consequences if any. Have the option to share with class.
